Tempest Reborn (16 page)

I grimaced, despite the fact that this should be good news. The truth was that the Chinese were with us only because they were so against supernaturals. Their government was very aware of the existence of the supes, and was determined to wipe them out. So they were more than happy to join with us in the destruction of the Red and the White, but for reasons I found more than distasteful.

‘Are we ready?’ Daniel asked. Magog nodded and Gog took her hand.

We all headed out to Anyan’s massive backyard, which was now dwarfed by the presence of a massive military helicopter. Gog, Magog, and Daniel, all bent low to the ground, raced over to the open doors of the helicopter and climbed inside.

It had all happened so fast, I hadn’t gotten to say goodbye to myself, or my labrys, before they were both high in the air and flying away.

I’d sort of hoped I’d be able to lean and loaf and invite my ease for the next twenty-four hours, but no such luck. While Magog traversed the globe, we kept a tight shield on Anyan’s cabin. I also kept a lid on the labrys’s power. For although it was so many miles away, I still had control, and we didn’t want the Red or the White to know our exact whereabouts until we were ready to engage. That said, I knew at least one of them was close – it felt like a prickle at the back of my neck. I prayed it was the White, and that the Red had gone after the bigger (seeming) fish.

My dad, Grizzie, and Tracy had gone out with Amy and Daoud to run errands. We’d given them
lots
of errands, so that we could make battle plans without them around. They were actually turning out to be really helpful, but I knew they also worried. They’d had enough stress, especially with Tracy pregnant.

Nell and Trill were patrolling Nell’s borders, to ensure the White didn’t sneak up on us or send in any minions.

That left Ryu, Iris, Caleb, and me to figure out what to do with the White once we had him. So we sat down once again with Caleb’s journal.

‘You have to be kidding me,’ I said as I started to read the section he’d highlighted.

Caleb shook his head, his expression grim. I read it again, growing more horrified with every line. Finally, I resorted to reading it out loud, thinking maybe it wouldn’t sound so bad. Trying to keep my voice measured, I read:

I tried to keep control of my temper as I looked up at Caleb. ‘What the hell is this? Are you kidding me?’

The satyr only shrugged. ‘It’s what it says.’

‘We can’t cleave Anyan in two! That’s absurd.’

‘But he’s not “just” Anyan anymore, Jane. He’s also the White. So it makes sense that he would need to be divided…’

‘But not
physically
, Caleb. I can’t hack Anyan into pieces, like the Sunday roast.’ My voice was more than a little hysterical.

‘It’s not all that bad,’ he said. ‘Keep reading.’

So I did:

Caleb visibly flinched when I glared at him again. ‘How is this better? It still says we have to chop him in half.’

‘Well, we don’t have to burn anything this time, like we did the bones,’ Iris said, trying to be helpful. I shot her a look that made her eyes widen. I turned back to the poem.

I groaned. ‘Great, so we need mercury, too? Isn’t mercury poison?’

Caleb shook his head. ‘It’s a metaphor. Our good man, C.A. Browne, writes of these passages, “The union of copper and silver is referred to by Theophrastus as taking place within the sea, the latter being a common term for the liquid metal mercury.”’

‘Oh. So more water, then,’ I said, only slightly mollified. I was nowhere near ‘over’ the idea we’d have to hack up Anyan.

Although now it was starting to make sense why the champion’s weapon was a labrys, of all things…

I refused to entertain such thoughts, at least not yet, and instead kept reading:

I stopped reading and looked up at Caleb for help.

‘That sounds positive?’ Iris said. ‘Except for the entrails. But the rest sounds good. We want cleansing, right?’

Ryu had been suspiciously quiet throughout this whole exchange, but at Iris’s words, he cracked a smile. I didn’t think it was very amusing, especially the use of the word ‘entrails’.

Seeing the stormy look on my face, Ryu suppressed his amusement before speaking. ‘I think this is where the stone is going to come in. There’s something revealed here that is white, and cleansed of the stain. I think that’s what the stone is going to do…’

‘Clean the stain?’ I asked, trying to keep my voice from sounding snarky. It wasn’t Caleb’s fault that ancient prophecies sucked in terms of clarity but excelled in being exceptionally scary.

‘Read the last bit,’ Caleb said, his sonorous voice almost soothing but not, considering the circumstances. But I did as he said.

We all sat, contemplating the last lines, before I spoke. My voice was crackling with emotion when I did – strained and high-pitched one minute, husky and low the next. I didn’t know whether to laugh, scream, or cry at this point.

‘Caleb, no offense, but this makes no sense. This has to be wrong, or something. It tells us nothing.’

Finally, Ryu spoke. Looking at me with compassion in his eyes, but a hard expression on his face, he laid it all out.

‘No, Jane. It’s quite clear. We’ve got to capture the White, surround him with water to weaken him, and then you need to cut him in half. Then we have to sluice him with more water, and hope for the best. That’s what the poem says, in quite clear English. Well, ancient Greek, translated into English.’

Ryu stopped talking, and I continued to stare at him, looking like a fish gasping for air.

‘You’re crazy,’ I insisted, not wanting to acknowledge he was right. ‘I can’t cut him in half.’

‘You’re going to have to. To kill the White, you’re going to have to cut the dragon in half.’

‘But what about Anyan? I can’t…’ My voice trailed off. I couldn’t kill Anyan. I couldn’t.

‘Will you give us a minute?’ Ryu asked. The others obeyed, Iris shooting a concerned glance at me as she filed out of the cabin with Caleb. When we were alone, Ryu leaned over the table, placing his hands palms down to rest his weight on them.

‘Jane, you have to do this,’ he said.

‘We don’t even know if the poem is real!’ I shouted, belatedly turning down the volume of my voice. ‘We don’t even know if we can trust it.’

‘No, we don’t. But you saw that monk glow, and Grizzie. You heard the universe speak through them. We have nothing else to go on. And time is running out.’

‘What do you mean, “time is running out”?’ I babbled. ‘That’s ridiculous. How is time running out? We have plenty of—’

‘No, Jane. Pretty soon the Red and the White are going to start coming after people. Our people. The only reason they haven’t already is probably because the White’s not at full strength and we’ve been a worry to them with our activities. But that won’t be an issue for long,’ Ryu said grimly.

‘Anyan will keep the White busy. While we find another—’

‘Jane,’ Ryu interrupted. ‘You said yourself that Anyan’s fading.’

‘But he’s not fad
ed
,’ I said, almost whimpering.

‘Do you think he wants to live like this? And what happens when the White does take control? When they start killing innocents, with Anyan trapped inside that thing?’

I looked down at my own hands, which clenched into fists in my lap.

‘Think it through, Jane. I know you love Anyan. He knows you love him. The gods know none of us wants to lose him. Even
I
don’t want to lose him. But this isn’t just about us anymore.’

I looked up at Ryu, and felt hot, wet tears coursing down my cheeks.

‘You would say that, wouldn’t you? You’ve always hated Anyan, and now you hate him even more because we’re together. Don’t tell me you’re being all “save the world”. You just want Anyan gone…’

It was a low blow, and unfair, and I regretted it even as I said it. But I regretted it even more at the look Ryu gave me. It was cold, but also full of pity. Like he kinda wanted to smack me, but knew just what a wretch I was at that moment. I didn’t like being either person – the girl who said such hateful things or the one who deserved pity.

So I took it back, or at least tried to, since we can never really take back what’s already been said.

‘I’m sorry, Ryu. That was uncalled for.’

‘Forget it. I know you’re stressed. But you need to know I’m right. This is the only hope we’ve got, and we have no reason to think the universe is steering us wrong.’

Tears blurred my eyes again, and I looked back down at my lap. But Ryu kept talking, although his voice was gentler.

‘We have to stop the White, and this is how we do it. The first part of the poem worked – we made the stone. And look at Gus. He walked into that fire, and there he was, good as new when it was all over.

‘Plus, Anyan
is
running out of time. We all know it. And he’d rather be dead than be that thing. Anyan and I may have been rivals in the past, yes. But I also respect him, and I know him well enough to know he wouldn’t want any of this. None of us would.’

The tears kept falling, but I knew Ryu was right. Anyan was losing his battle, and he’d rather be dead than a shadow in the mind of the White for all eternity.

‘But why do I have to do it?’ I said, my voice breaking in an ugly sob.

‘Because life sucks,’ Ryu said, moving to my side of the table and squatting down to take both my hands in his. ‘But we’ll all be right there with you, if it helps.’

I looked at Ryu through the tears and nodded. ‘It does. Not much. But it does.’

‘Good. And I do think this will work. I didn’t want to believe that was really the universe, speaking through Grizzie or the monk. The whole thing seemed ridiculous. I was convinced you’d do some weird chant for three days, and at the end of that time we’d have a tired Jane and a pile of burned bones. Instead we got that stone. And whatever it is, it’s powerful. We can all sense it.’

We looked at the object in question, which was sitting on top of the refrigerator. It had seemed like a safe enough spot, considering it couldn’t really be hidden since it beamed out so much power.

I hadn’t really thought much about the stone, to be honest. And I hadn’t thought about it the way Ryu had – as proof the monk’s poem worked. But that’s exactly what it was, and what Gus had done walking into that conflagration had seemed just as crazy and dangerous at the time as carving someone up.

I picked up my copy of the poem and read it over again as Ryu went to get Iris and Caleb. They filed in and sat down.

Then, with the creature’s help, we came up with a bunch of strategies to get the White on the ground, and surrounded by water, so that I could carve him up like a turkey. We worked for hours, only taking a break when the others returned from their grocery-shopping trip. So as not to be recognized, they went to a supermarket an hour away, with a few coolers in the truck to pack up the frozen and perishable goods. Amy wasn’t strong enough to glamour all three of them, but they needed to get out of the house. My shenanigans had made them all virtual prisoners, another thing I had to keep in mind.

This has to end
, I admitted to myself finally. One way or another.

The next few hours were torture as we waited for the word to come that Magog and her team were in Chinese air space and near the target we’d chosen – an abandoned factory that the government claimed wasn’t inhabited. Daniel had done quite a bit of negotiating to get the Chinese to agree to our use of their air space and their territory, and he’d been relieved when they’d acquiesced without too much of a fuss. We were, after all, bringing a dragon into their air space, but he claimed they understood the global threat the creature represented.

And speaking of global threats, there had also been reports of the Red in that area, and we’d had a few sightings of our own – a glimpse of something large and white on the horizon, which disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

So we knew we wouldn’t have long to wait once we threw off shields and made a fuss. That came the next day.